His twinkly eyes, have-a-go spirit and Yorkshire charm made John Noakes the Blue Peter star people remember most fondly from their childhoods.

As irreverent as he was unpredictable, Noakes was the one who bravely threw himself out of a plane, climbed the 143ft mast of HMS Ganges without a harness and regularly forgot his lines, becoming the fearless big brother to a generation of viewers.

It is a legacy which makes his most recent appearance in the news all the sadder.

Noakes, now 81, suffers from Alzheimer’s and was found dehydrated in a storm drain after going missing for ten hours near his Majorcan home.

Having turned his back on broadcasting in the 1980s, he has spent the past three decades sailing and soaking up the Mediterranean sun in relative obscurity.

Because, for all the jokes and clowning around on set, Noakes has remained an intensely private person – and resolutely hid from his millions of viewers the fascinating truth about his real identity.

As he once said: ‘There are some things that I have to keep secret.’

But The Mail on Sunday can now reveal that the John Noakes familiar to a generation was born and brought up as John Bottomley, the son of a mill-worker and senior Mason called Arthur Bottomley. Today the two are seen pictured together for the first time.

But it seems Noakes endured a family break-up so troubling that he eventually came to reject his natural father, preferring the surname of his stepfather.

Double Act: John poses for a snap with his famous border collie, Shep, on the set of Blue Peter

Born in 1934 in the village of Shelf, between Halifax and Bradford, Noakes lived with Arthur and his mother Sallie until they divorced when he was just nine.

Arthur appears to have been a respected figure in the local community, working as a dyer’s agent for the wool mills, and later becoming Worshipful Master of St James’ Masonic Lodge in Halifax.

Noakes has previously only described the experience of his parents’ separation as ‘painful’ and claimed, cryptically, that his father said ‘terrible things’ about his mother. But what happened was certainly scandalous for the time.

Sources close to the family say the split took place while Arthur was serving in Egypt during the Second World War. He is pictured at the time in family photographs, a young, handsome man smiling into the camera, wearing Army regulation khaki shirt and shorts and long woollen socks.

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Yet in his absence, Sallie is said to have become close to a drummer from a well-known dance orchestra of the day, prompting the divorce.

It meant Noakes went to live with his grandmother before gaining a scholarship to local boarding school Rishworth. Caught in the middle, Noakes was told his father had made off with £300 from the divorce settlement which had been intended for him. Quite whether this is true remains unknown, but the young Noakes appeared to believe it.

However, within five years Sallie had moved on again – and in 1947 she married a respected trumpet player called Alfie Noakes, who played with well-known band leaders of the time such as Ambrose and Geraldo.

The musician, originally from Canada, had arrived in the UK in March 1924 and had also been married before, with at least one daughter. He has an entry in the Canadian Encyclopedia and also appears in the Who’s Who Of British Jazz. He must have made a huge impression on his new stepson as it was Noakes’s name that the young John Bottomley later adopted, shortly after he turned 17 in 1951.

In the meantime, his relationship with his natural father Arthur was still solid enough that he attended his second wedding, to widow and former dressmaker Mabel Brown, in March 1950.

Smile for the camera: John, 27, with his stepmother Mabel Bottomley on Rishworth Moor in 1961

The reception was held in the Masonic lodge in Halifax – and the date had to be officially declared a ‘Ladies Night’ to allow women, and indeed the bride herself, to attend.

Family pictures reveal a smartly dressed 16-year-old, sitting beside his smiling father at the top table at the wedding breakfast.

Hair slicked back and in a sombre suit, John also dutifully appears next to his father and his glamorous new wife Mabel at the reception. But it was after the wedding that Noakes’s relationship with his father deteriorated.

At some point at about this time, John had moved in with his father but, as he himself has said somewhat bitterly, his father then kicked him out of the house – perhaps to focus on his new relationship.

A source close to the family said: ‘It all happened after Arthur married Mabel – John never became friendly with Mabel.

‘She was a lovely woman and it wasn’t her fault, but I think John never really forgave his father for getting married again.

‘He never seemed to blame his mother for anything.’

Noakes went on boating holidays with the new couple to the Norfolk Broads, but within a year he had changed his name.

The visits to his father then apparently became fewer and John, living in London, was working in cleaning jobs to finance putting himself through acting school at London’s Guildhall.

Not that family entanglements are ever straightforward. Treasured family photographs again show John on a trip with his father and Mabel to Rishworth Moor in West Yorkshire in July 1961.

THE pictures show no sign of any strain between the pair and, instead, appear to show a loving family outing. Arthur is jauntily dressed in a tie and woollen cardigan, smiling into the camera.

John, too, appears relaxed, leaning against the car with his stepmother.

The trip came as Noakes was establishing himself as a serious theatre actor, just four years before he became part of the Blue Peter team. Sadly, it was also just two years before his father Arthur died in 1963.

Had the pair put their differences behind them? Perhaps, although sources claim that John did not attend his father’s funeral. Arthur’s death meant he would never know just how successful his driven son would become.

John Noakes rose to prominence after he was spotted by Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter, who lived in Leicester, when he was preparing to play Willie Mossop in Hobson’s Choice at a theatre in the city.

Big day: John, then 16, next to his father Arthur at his second wedding in 1950

By then married to Vicky, a solicitor’s daughter with her own boutique business, the couple had a two-year-old son Mark, and Noakes jumped at the chance to live a more stable life in London.

He joined Blue Peter, alongside fellow presenters Valerie Singleton and Christopher Trace – later replaced by Peter Purves – in December 1965.

It was a successful partnership that was to last until 1978 and defined children’s television for the era. Viewers were, rightly, in awe of Noakes. He became famous for his off-script blunders and improvisations, daring stunts and his close relationship with the programme’s border collie, Shep, who lived with him.

He once forgot comedian Ronnie Barker’s name – referring to him as his comedy partner, Ronnie Corbett – and secured a place in the Guinness Book Of Records after becoming the first civilian in Britain to parachute from a plane at a height of five miles.

He also travelled down St Moritz’s famous Cresta Run at 80mph upside down after falling out of his bobsleigh, proudly revealing his bruises – on his bottom – to the Blue Peter audience.

So outrageous were his escapades that BBC executives, when asked to carry out risk assessments, simply declared: ‘John may die.’

Since his departure he has declared his regret for appearing on the show, and his hatred of television in general – and particularly those working in the field.

But in an interview 15 years ago, his wife Vicky revealed such grand statements were a mask for Noakes’s chronic shyness, designed to divert attention from any personal questions that might uncover the mysteries he strove to hide.

To this Noakes responded, cheerfully and somewhat poignantly: ‘I get into trouble. I’m always in trouble, I’ve been in trouble all me life. It’s taking its toll now.’